Now open - Gordon Biersch Brewpub in Bolingbrook near Ikea.

This was the grand opening for the new "mall" thing that just opened in Bolingbrook. Gordon Biersch Brewpub is in the back of the mall behind Macys. It was a madhouse on Sunday when my wife and I went there for lunch. We brought our 6 month old with us.

I love my beer so we decided to try out this place. We live in Downers Grove and it took us about 10 minutes to get there, and another few minutes dealing with the traffic - they had traffic "cops" everywhere directing traffic.

We got there and put our names on the waiting list and were seated about 20 minutes later. The menu seems like pretty normal brewpub type fair.
We started off with the breaded artichoke hearts appetizer, and my wife ordered the veggie pizza and I ordered the Rueben. I also got their beer sampler.

The Beer:
In the sampler I got 5 types of beer:
Golden Export - Light style ale - if you like bud/miller you would probably like this. It was OK but rather weak tasting.

Hefeweizen - Was pretty cool but light tasting also. Definite hints of banana but overall pretty simple flavor. I would take a hacker pschorr over this anyday.

Czech lager - Was hoping for something a bit more pungent as eastern Euro lagers usually are but it was pretty straightforward tasting.

Marzen: This was pretty good and again was pretty light in taste.

A dark "black"(I forget the name): After I finished my sampler I actually ordered a pint of this because IMO it was the best beer they had. It was dark and matly and overall pretty good.

Overall the beers all had a "light" taste to them and nothing blew my socks off. I would say the style and tastes are similiar to Rock Bottoms downtown. I would choose to go to Emmetts in Downers over this place given the choice or the Rock Bottom in Warrenville. Note - The beer at Rock Bottoms in Warrenville is much better than the stuff at the Rock Bottoms downtown location - I asked about this and they actually have a different brewmaster for different locations.

Artichoke Appetizer: I was very unimpressed with this - they were not very crispy and were kind of soggy and and were bland.

Veggie Pizza - This IMO was pretty good "california" style pizza. Mostly bread with a little bit of cheese and covered with uncooked spinach. I think I liked it better than my wife did.

My wife was going to order the Goat Cheese Ravioli instead of the pizza but they were OUT of the Ravioli. I don't know how they ran out of opening weekend either.

I got the Rueben with Garlic fries. The reuben was servered on marbled rye and was good tasting but overlerly greesy and the bread was practically falling apart because of the amount of greese soaking through it.

The most redeeming part of the meal were the Garlic fries. I can safetly say these were probably the best fries I have ever had in my life. They had tons of garlic chunks on them, were crispy and tasted great.

Total bill was around with tax and tip was around $50 and IMO wasn't worth that. Waitstaff was good and friendly and it looked like a nice place. Our 6 month old seemed to find it boring and fell asleep half way during lunch. I don't believe we will be going back there anytime soon, there are better values for your money out there.

The only other place that I have seen this particular chain is the San Francisco Airport. My experience there was much like yours. It was nothing special.

When I lived in Memphis, one moved into the building I worked in. It was a good news, bad news deal. It was close by but kinda so-so. We all got tired of the garlic fries fairly quickly EXACTLY because they had tons of garlic chunks on them. It got to the point that I didn't want anyone at the table to order them...

They did have some cute waitresses, though...

YourPalWill wrote:The only other place that I have seen this particular chain is the San Francisco Airport. My experience there was much like yours. It was nothing special.

They're in the Las Vegas airport also...at the American Gates.

cjchaps wrote:Note - The beer at Rock Bottoms in Warrenville is much better than the stuff at the Rock Bottoms downtown location - I asked about this and they actually have a different brewmaster for different locations.

I haven't been to the Rock Bottom in Warrenville, but the one downtown has gotten some reasonably good reviews here:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=11056

nr706 wrote:

cjchaps wrote:Note - The beer at Rock Bottoms in Warrenville is much better than the stuff at the Rock Bottoms downtown location - I asked about this and they actually have a different brewmaster for different locations.

I haven't been to the Rock Bottom in Warrenville, but the one downtown has gotten some reasonably good reviews here:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=11056

Truthfully I haven't been there for about 2 years. Before 2 years ago I had been there a handful of times over a few year span and was never impressed. I may have to go back if I am in the neighborhood and check them out, thx.

Gordon Biersch is really blah (food and beer). I used to live in LA and Phoenix where there were a few. Nothing about it was exciting and the beers aren't that good at all. I don't see it doing well here with all the great beers we already have. It's a surpise they even tried! ;p

On a side note....the Rock Bottom in Milwaukee is good.

I actually went to Biersch for their preview night, got a freebie from Aaron, and since I was comp'ed was not sure about reviewing. But I guess I can add.

Pretty much agree on the beers, though I liked the Weizen okay by itself. However, with food the fruity, banana or pancake or cinnamon flavors were awful. The Marzen was acceptable, the dark beer a little better, though I went with the Marzen with my food. The best thing I can say about the beer is that it did taste very fresh.

Also had the artichoke appetizer, and our serving was okay - breaded hearts with some garlic mayo, lots of herbs (dried) and seasoning.

For main courses we sampled a few things that were purported to be "spicy." In Biersch-speak, this means a very small amount of hot pepper, and a lot of salt. Everything else was doused heavily in some form of seasoned salt (subtle variations in each blend) and fried.

The food was edible, and there was enough of it. The room was cacaphonous, even when it emptied out as the night went on. But the overall experience was sufficiently mediocre, and the options uninspiring, so we passed on the free dessert at the end of the evening.

If I had to, I could go back if it was not so noisy. But it is very noisy. And while I am providing suggestions to the Biersch chain - when we got there the big screen TVs were displaying the Cubs game, and the Yankees on ESPN. After a while I finally went up to the bar and explained how completely wrong this was, and they switched from the Yankees to the White Sox with a small apology. Whether you are a baseball fan or not, trust me that this shows a pretty much total disregard for your market.

Looks like there will be some steep competition for your chain dining dollar in that mall - Ted Turner is just a short walk away, and there is a monster Bass Pro Shop with some kind of dining place across the lot, plus one or two other chains. The mall itself looked nice. Would not surprise me if there is some attrition in the next year or so, once the novelty begins to wear out.

But that probably is the first and last time I go there.

I'd like to share my experiences with Gordon Biersch in Bolingbrook as well. This restaurant is one of a number that opened up along the backside of the Promenade shopping plaza, and together with Johnny Rocket's, bd's Mongolian Barbeque, Ted's Montana Grill and Bar Louie, forms the basis for some of their more "sit down" restaurants.

I've been to the brewery two or three times now, and we found it to be quite busy (given its new status, that's not surprising) and still working out some of the kinks. While my husband is a beer drinker, I am not, so I went looking for other alternatives. Count me surprised that they didn't have frozen drinks, though this might just be my lack of experience with larger breweries. They were completely out of lemonade and the mix for their pop was totally off -- making for a very unpleasantly saccharine taste on the cola and our friend likewise said the Sprite was mostly just carbonated water.

Onto the food, the prices for their selections are a bit higher than average but the different selections are more interesting than your run-of-the-mill brewery. We ended up opting for the pasta meals, goat cheese ravioli for me and the equally highly recommended pasta jambalaya for him. I found the goat cheese ravioli adequate but rather uninspired; simply, it was just too blah. The food was well-prepared and at a good temperature when it arrived, but I couldn't say much for the dish other than that it was creamy and badly yearned for a kick that the rosemary just couldn't provide.

On the other hand, the pasta jambalaya received a very good reception from my husband. I sampled a bit and found the balance of spices to be much better, although I might've preferred it a touch hotter myself. The dish was all in all pretty good, though the andouille sausage was cut up into really large chunks that we both had to cut apart.

The second time around, I ended up getting the seared ahi tuna and it was very bland. The garlic fries my friend got with her hamburger ended up being used to help improve the taste a little, though the seasoning is far too salty for good consumption.

So, all in all, this isn't a bad place to stop for a meal but it isn't high on the list of excellent places to dine in Bolingbrook/south Naperville/Woodridge. The service really varies depending on the experience of the server; our first server was extremely attentive and very positive on the whole, and we were quite pleased with how often she came by to the section to refill drinks, take orders, and check in. I wish I could remember her name, but she was great. The second time, the server reappeared once, couldn't wait to get onto her break, and wasn't especially prompt about bringing out the food.